


The Most Precious of Gifts

by theartofbeinganerd



Series: 1 Night (+9 Months) Series [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, Father's Day, Fitz is the Cutest Dad, Fluff, I Can Feel My Teeth Rotting, Oh Boy Is There Fluff, One Night Stand AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-19
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-11-15 23:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11241126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theartofbeinganerd/pseuds/theartofbeinganerd
Summary: Fitz and Jemma celebrate Father's Day with their five year old daughter, Evelyn.*Set in my One Night Stand AU 'verse, 1 Night (+9 Months), though it's not really necessary to have read that first





	The Most Precious of Gifts

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by @simmppaa on tumblr: "Fitzsimmons celebrates father's day with Evelyn".

“Alright, be careful mixing that up,” Jemma instructed, watching with a sharp eye and ready to take over as Evelyn stirred the pancake batter up.

“Now what?” Evelyn chirped when she’d successfully mixed up the batter, tilting her head back to glance curiously up at her mother.

“Now we add the chocolate chips.” Excitedly, Evelyn reached for the nearby bag of them, and before Jemma could say a word, she’d turned the bag over and dumped its entire contents into the bowl. “Oh Evelyn!” she sighed, taking the empty bag from her and staring worriedly at the bowl of what now appeared to only be a sea of chocolate chips.

“Sorry,” Evelyn murmured, her little nose wrinkling with her wince as she too studied the bowl.

After a moment, Jemma’s lips quirked into a small smile as she rolled her eyes and admitted, “You know what? With your daddy’s sweet tooth, he’ll probably love extra chocolate chip pancakes – especially when you tell him what a big girl you were, making them all by yourself.”

Evelyn’s wide, proud smile was back, and she enthusiastically began to stir the batter again, attempting to mix in the chocolate chips (and she only needed a bit of help from Jemma getting the job done). Once it was time to pour the batter, Jemma took over, though she allowed Evelyn to pick how big or small she made the pancakes (they ended up all quite large, predictably).

When they were nearly finished, Jemma checked the clock then told Evelyn, “Why don’t you go wake Daddy up?”

Evelyn didn’t need to be told twice – with her mother’s help, she was down off of the little stepping stool she needed to reach the counter and rushing off down the hall. As the sound of her little feet padding on the floor echoed through the house, a fond smile curved Jemma’s lips.

-

“ _Oof_!”

Fitz let out a grunt as something heavy landed on top of him, startling him from his restful sleep into wakefulness. The moment that his eyes sprung open, he found Evelyn grinning down at him, missing teeth and all.

Pressing his lips together to hide his smile, he declared loudly, “Oh look, there’s a monkey in my bed.” Then, before Evelyn could react, he threw an arm around her little shoulders, rolling them over until she was trapped in the blankets with him. “Go back to sleep little monkey,” he mumbled, the words now muffled by his pillow.

Evelyn’s childish giggles reached his ears then, and he felt her squirming desperately to free herself from his grip. “ _No_!” she cried through the giggles, “It’s time to get up, Daddy! It’s _Daddy’s Day_!”

That time, Fitz couldn’t help the grin that spread across his lips. Before Jemma, before Evelyn, he’d never imagined that he could love being a father as much as he did, that he’d be as _suited_ for it as he’d come to realize that he was over the years. After Evelyn had been born, loving and caring for her had come so easily, so naturally, leaving his fears about becoming like his father unfounded – there was no boo-boo left un-kissed, no monsters hiding in the closet or under the bed, no nightmare he couldn’t hug away.

Truly, he didn’t know what his life would have been like if he hadn’t ended up sleeping with Jemma at Bobbi and Hunter’s wedding, though it wasn’t something he cared to give too much thought to (though, there was still a part of him that wished that they could’ve done it right, dating and falling in love, then getting married before Evelyn came into the world – but, everything still worked out, even if it hadn’t happened in the “correct” order, so he wasn’t one to complain).

Rolling over onto his back, Fitz tugged Evelyn into a warm hug and kissed the top of her curly mop of hair. “Oh?” he asked teasingly, “Do you have something to say to me then?”

Evelyn let out another peal of giggles, then folded her hands on his chest and dropped her chin onto them. Beaming up at him, she said happily, “Happy Daddy’s Day!”

“Well thank you, Evie.” He dropped another kiss on her forehead, then arched an eyebrow at her and asked, “Do I smell pancakes?”

Evelyn’s eyes grew wide and she nodded rapidly. “I made them all by myself!”

“You _did_?”

She made a face, then tacked on reluctantly, “Mummy helped.”

“Well, I’m sure you did all the hard work.” When Evelyn’s smile was once more plastered across her little face, Fitz told her in a hushed voice, “We better hurry before Mummy eats them all herself.”

As Evelyn gasped in horror at the very idea, Fitz climbed out of bed, grabbing her by the ankles and playfully yanking her to the edge of the mattress. As she shrieked in delight, he threw her little body over his shoulder, carrying her out into the kitchen with him.

Jemma glanced up at their entrance, rolling her eyes fondly at the sight she was met with. As he set Evelyn down on the ground, he teased Jemma, “I got your wake-up call.”

“I see that,” she shot back, a little smirk playing on her lips as she turned to hand him a plate stacked with pancakes. Though, before he could go anywhere, she leaned in to give him a kiss. “Happy Father’s Day, Fitz,” she told him softly. Then, with a sly smile, she added, “And that’s from both me, and the baby.”

Setting his plate down on the counter, Fitz squatted down until his was eye-level with Jemma’s stomach, cupping her bulging little baby bump lovingly. “Well then, thank you,” he murmured, planting a kiss in the center of her stomach.

Evelyn hurried to his side, dancing anxiously on her tip-toes as she cried, “I wanna say hi to the baby too!”

Chuckling, Fitz straightened up and stepped back so that Evelyn could brace herself on her mother’s legs, leaning up to peck her stomach as she said, “Hi baby!”

Fitz ruffled her hair affectionately. “You know sweetheart, next year, you and the baby will both be able to celebrate Father’s Day with me,” he reminded her, though a moment later he went on with a laugh, “And then I’ll have two little monkeys keeping me from getting a good night’s sleep.” When Evelyn simply grinned up at him and shrugged innocently, he snorted and gently pushed her over in the direction of their dining room table.

They all sat down at the table together to have breakfast, Evelyn claiming pointedly that she was a big girl and could cut her pancakes herself, then that she could pour her own syrup (and Jemma, being the wonderful, patient mother that she was, only grimaced a bit when the sugary liquid had oozed over Evelyn’s entire plate). When their plates were clear and Evelyn’s face was sticky with leftover syrup, she announced excitedly, “I got a present for you!”

As Fitz raised his eyebrows in surprise, Evelyn climbed down from her chair and hurried off to retrieve said present. Turning to Jemma, he asked curiously, “Did you know about this?” After all, for each of his previous Father’s Days, Jemma had been the one to purchase a gift “from Evelyn” to give to him.

“It was all Evelyn,” she assured him, shaking her head. “Her kindergarten class had a special art period dedicated to making Father’s Day presents last week.”

When Evelyn came darting back into the room, Fitz scooped her up to sit on his lap, making sure to wipe her face clear of syrup before he finally took the little gift bag she was waving impatiently from her. Wordlessly, he threw a glance at Jemma, then at the gift bag, before lifting his gaze pointedly back to her.

“Alright fine,” Jemma admitted with a huff, “the gift bag was me, but everything else was Evelyn.”

“ _Daddy_! Open it!” Evelyn insisted, making a displeased face and squirming unhappily on his lap.

“I am, I am!” Fitz assured her, quickly removing the tissue paper from the bag so that he could take out the present Evelyn was so excited for him to see. It was a small, square picture frame made out of popsicle sticks and painted green, with golden glitter glue spelling out in Evelyn’s messy and childish handwriting, “Best Daddy”. Inside the frame was a picture of Fitz and Evelyn, taken on her fifth birthday the previous year.

He couldn’t quite help the way that he got a bit choked up at the sight, though when Evelyn began to look concerned, he cleared his throat and gave her a tight hug. “Thank you, Evie, I _love_ it.”

After they’d helped Jemma with the dishes, Fitz took Evelyn outside with him to “help” with the few outdoor chores he hadn’t had the time to get to quite yet, such as fixing the fence and mowing the lawn. Instead, however, he ended up spending the day playing with Evelyn, pushing her on the little swing-set they had in their backyard and finishing up the kites they’d been making together in their garage, taking them out for a test run in the afternoon breeze.

Fitz figured that he could do chores any old day – today, he was celebrating being Evelyn’s father, and what better way to do that than to spend the whole day with his favorite little monkey?

Toward the end of the day, the three of them piled into the car and headed over to Bobbi and Hunter’s, where they were having a little barbeque for the holiday. Almost immediately upon arrival, they lost Evelyn as she ran off to play with Bobbi and Hunter’s almost-three-year-old daughter Elle. Fitz drifted over to join Hunter by the grill, and at his approach, Hunter glanced up to ask with a smirk, “You feeling old yet, mate? This is your, what, fifth Father’s Day?”

“Sixth, actually,” Fitz corrected, shaking his head and smiling warmly as he watched Evelyn playing a game of tag with Elle in the grassy backyard. “Even though it seems impossible, each year is better than the last.” Turning back to Hunter, he advised, “You just wait until Elle’s a bit older, then you’ll understand.” As he thought back over the day, he gave a little laugh. “You know, six years ago I never would’ve imagined myself nearly bursting into tears over a popsicle-stick picture frame, but here I am – and I wouldn’t trade it for a bloody thing.”

“I hear that,” Hunter assured him, raising the spatula in his hand slightly in agreement. Unsurprisingly, he hadn’t been sold on the idea of having kids – _even_ when Bobbi had told him that she was pregnant. And, for the next nine months, he’d continued to insist that he wasn’t father material and didn’t know the first thing about being one. But, as soon as a tiny little Elle had been placed into his arms for the first time, he’d been wrapped right around her little finger.

Throwing another glance out toward Evelyn, Fitz told him sincerely, “I know I say this about once a month, but…just, _thank you_. I mean, if you hadn’t gotten married when you did, or hadn’t married Bobbi at all…I might never have met Jemma and my life couldn’t possibly have been anywhere near as perfect as it is now. So just…thanks, Hunter, truly. I can’t say it enough.”

A sly smirk quirked Hunter’s lips and he nodded at Jemma, where she was sitting on the porch with Bobbi, Daisy, and their friend and Daisy’s boyfriend, Trip. “You can thank me by naming that next kid after me,” he offered, crossing his arms over his chest and arching an eyebrow.

Fitz let out a sharp scoff. “I’m not _that_ grateful.”

However, at that moment, Evelyn came running over to them, waving around a small rock curled protectively in her little fist. “Daddy! Daddy! I got this just for you!” She placed it in his waiting hand, and Fitz realized then that it was shaped a bit like a lopsided heart.

“Thank you sweetheart,” he said, picking her up to sit her on his hip and telling himself that he would not cry over a rock shaped like a heart, damn it.

“Promise to keep it forever?” Evelyn asked, pouting up at him with her big blue eyes and little bottom lip sticking out adorably.

“Of course,” he assured her quickly, because it was the absolute truth – he’d keep any present his little girl gave him, even something as simple as a rock (though she would always remain his most precious gift, of course). Evelyn beamed excitedly, throwing her arms around his neck to hug him fiercely. Over the top of her head, he noticed Hunter giving him a knowing look, pointedly glancing down at his precious daughter clinging to him. In a hushed, defeated voice, Fitz hissed at him, “Okay fine, I’ll mention it to Jemma.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can also find me on tumblr - I'm theartofbeinganerd over there as well!


End file.
